The New Countries
by TheGirlInWonderland
Summary: A sickness is sweeping the world, one that can be cured if two people have the responsibility of being a country. Five boys and five girls are selected from each country to see if they would be fit to be a country. Many OCs. Written by Luna Black, edited by yours truly.
1. Chapter 1

Sabrina stared at the TV screen. She, along with her mother Cathy, father Alex, and sister Lexi had gathered in the living room. The title flashing on the screen was the biggest news story since the countries had come out of hiding.

"Countries found out the cause of sickness," it read.

The camera then turned to the countries, Sabrina's out country, America, out in front. Behind him were Romano, Germany, and England. They were all standing at the front of the stage, just behind a large, ominous looking podium. The other countries were sitting down behind them. China, the first to get sick, was pale, with bags under his eyes. His friend Russia, the second, was no better, they were practically holding each other up. America was at the podium, looking serious for the first time.

"We have an idea of what is causing the sickness," he said in a strong voice, though America himself looked tired. He stepped down and Romano came forward.

"As most of you know, my brother and I have not gotten sick. England has done tests on why this is. He has come to the conclusion that it is because we both represent the same country." Romano looked over to his brother, who was sitting next to Germany. The blonde that was usually tall, intimidating, and powerful now seemed weak, fragile even. Romano stepped to the side to allow England to speak.

"I have figured out a way to change a human into a country," England said. Whispers broke out from the people in the room. In their small living room, Sabrina's own family was shocked into silence.

"Quiet," England said with a look of agony crossing his face. France shot up out of his seat to place a hand on England's shoulder. They whispered to each other and England turned around, and France stood beside him.

England continued, "This has never happened before, so we don't know exactly how it will work." England paused, looking over his shoulder at the countries, concern in his eyes when he looked at them. He turned back around and continued, "This is not replacing the countries, this will be a partnership between the country and the human candidate, like Romano and Italy." He smiled at them, but it was gone when he started speaking again. "We… we do know it needs to be someone young, most likely someone aged fifteen through eighteen, because we do not know how long they will age after that. So each of the countries will take five boys and five girls that they think could be possibilities." England took a deep breath, like the worst was over. "These people will be taken away for a year. They will live with the country. They will be able to contact their families, and can choose to leave at any time, if they feel they are not right for this. There will be tutors on site, so the people selected will have access to arguably the best education in the world." England then turned to America, who nodded, as if confirming something.

"All countries will do this now." England once again looked pained. France helped England back down to his seat.

"The draft for America will start this month. That is all." The screen then went black.

* * *

Beta's Note- This was written by the lovely Luna Black, beta'd by yours truly! It's being posted on my profile due to strict parents, but all props go to her! If you suggest ideas for OCs, there's no guarantee that the character will be in the story, but some characteristics might be used.

Reviews, as always, are loved, and I hope you'll come back for the next chapter!

(Yes, this was posted earlier, but I didn't change the name of the OC Sabrina from the rough draft name... Sorry for any confusion)


	2. Chapter 2

Back in their small living room, Sabrina's family was still silent. Her parents stared at the TV; Lexi was looking around the room, trying to find words to say; Sabrina just stared at the floor.

"Can they do this?" Her mom finally spoke up. Her eyes had tears in them.

Alex looked to his wife and put and arm around her. She started to cry. It was understandable; both of their daughters were in the age-range of the draft. They could be taken away and made into a monster.

"If they're picked, they will drop out immediately, right girls?" their dad asked in a hard voice, as if daring them to argue.

"Of course Dad," Lexi said, standing up from the couch, "Why would I want to become something like that?" Lexi walked out after she said her piece. The room now just had the three of them, the tension was practically visible.

"What about you, Sabrina?" her dad asked again, his voice rising, "Do you want to be an abomination?" The way he was talking made Sabrina feel small.

"No," Sabrina said, still looking at the floor.

"No what?" he snarled, grinding his teeth. Sabrina looked up, blinking tears from her eyes.

"No sir, I don't want to be like that sir," Sabrina said, her voice wavering from the tears.

"Good, now go upstairs and study." Her dad was still staring at her. Sabrina jumped off the couch and ran upstairs to her bedroom.

She did the only thing she took comfort in those days. She looked underneath her black-covered bed and grabbed a black box, which was the size of a shoebox, and opened it.

There were newspaper and magazine articles, drawings, and beat-up VHS tapes. They were all about the countries. There was one magazine she liked in particular, an edition of Time magazine with America's face on it, along with the other countries.

Sabrina picked up a worn newspaper article from the times and read:

'_We as a nation had a shock last week, which I'm sure you heard about, unless you've been cut off from society entirely. The president told us in the State of the Union that not just our country, but all of them, have a representative, a personification if you will. _

_ The man meant to be the personification of our United States was young, and interacted with our president like they were old friends. Many were shocked, and refused to believe it. Indeed, one man, Jack Baker, just yesterday tried to take the life of the man who he did not believe represented this country._

_ Baker planned to assassinate the president as well as the representative. He only got in one shot, right in the middle of the representative's forehead. The representative, who said his "human name" is Alfred F. Jones, didn't even flinch. He wiped the blood from his head, and attempted to calm the screaming crowd. Moments later, Baker was arrested._

_ Some still refuse to believe Jones's story, but one thing is certain: He is not human.'_

The tears were drying on Sabrina's face, and she felt the ache leave her chest. So much had changed in the past two years. The countries had come out, and there had been two assassination attempts, one against America, and one against Russia.

Some people still didn't believe the countries, and others were against them, like Sabrina's family. They thought the countries were monsters, thought the way they didn't age or die was sickening.

Sabrina wanted to become a country. She wanted to get away from her family and change the world. War had virtually stopped, although crime was still rampant.

Sabrina pushed a tape into the VCR and switched on the TV, as she did every night. The tape was of the speech given when the countries officially introduced themselves to the world.

Drifting off to sleep, Sabrina listened to the voices of her heroes.

"I am America. I am England. _Bonjour, _I am France. I am Russia, da? I'm Canada, eh? I am Sweden…"

* * *

Beta's Note- This is the second chapter! (Obviously) Please review, and favorite, and follow, and come back for more!

The third chapter is done, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna get around to beta-ing it, seeing as homecoming is tonight and I probably won't be sleeping...


	3. Chapter 3

The next day was different. Sabrina walked into the kitchen to see her father glaring at the newspaper, like usual. The odd part was that her mother was also glowering at the paper like it had personally offended her.

Sabrina's mother was a nice lady. She was always helping others; she loved her family, and was an active part of her daughter's lives, for the most part. She was in wonderful shape at thirty-five, due to the fact she exercised every day, a habit she had formed while she was a cheerleader. She was a minister's daughter, and tended to be overly religious, which was her only downfall, in Sabrina's opinion.

It was a bit weird that a woman like Cathy would look at a guy like Alex, let alone marry him. Alex was an overweight bum who took no notice in his children except when discipline was needed, and drank with his buddies every moment he wasn't drinking by himself.

So when level-headed Cathy was glaring at something like it had just eaten her first-born child, you knew something was wrong.

Lexi, who had been walking behind Sabrina, pushed through the doorway, knocking Sabrina into the wooden door frame.

"Mom, are you okay?" Lexi asked in a sickly sweet voice.

Lexi was the baby of the family, the one who could do no wrong. When she and Sabrina were younger, they had been best friends, always by each other, until high school happened. All of a sudden, Sabrina's sweet little sister decided she wanted to be a cheerleader, which meant they couldn't hang out as much as before, because she had practice. Sabrina had understood she was busy as well; she had just joined the school band.

Then Lexi didn't want to sit with her at lunch. Then Lexi started ignoring her at school. Then she started whispering rumors about Sabrina that spread like wildfire throughout the school. Then the bullying began in earnest at school, and that quickly made its way home. Lexi started feeding their parents lies, talking about the horrible things Sabrina supposedly did.

"Look at the paper!" Cathy shouted, an accusing finger pointed at the paper. A glare was fixed into her eyes that Sabrina had never seen her mom wear.

Their dad handed the paper to Sabrina, a natural glower set on his face.

Lexi yanked the paper out of Sabrina's hands. Sabrina pushed Lexi to the side so they could both see what it was; ignoring the dirty look Lexi shot her.

"Country-Wide Analysis to Start"

'_Early Friday morning Alfred Jones, America's personification, officially announced the nation wide search for the ten teenagers who will have the option of becoming a country, if they so choose. All people aged fifteen through eighteen will be analyzed, and if they are selected, will be contacted through the mail. If an individual does not respond within three days, a representative of Jones' will be sent to get him or her.'_

"Oh," Sabrina said, trying to think of something to say that would diffuse the tension in the room.

"Oh is right! I was hoping that this was a joke!" Cathy shrieked hysteria in her eyes. Alex stood and held his wife.

"Go to school," he said, his voice sounding around the kitchen. Lexi walked out of the room, rolling her eyes. Sabrina grabbed a granola bar for breakfast and ran up the stairs to her room to retrieve her backpack.

Sabrina walked down the street to the bus stop. She was the only one there; Lexi always got a ride from one of her friends. She shoved her headphones in her ears and turned up the volume as high as it could go. Super Junior songs always made her feel better. The bus soon came. Unfortunately, there were no open seats, so she had to sit next to a pervy-looking kid, a judgment that was confirmed when he tried to look down her shirt.

When she got to school, Sabrina smiled for the first time that day. School always made her feel better, oddly enough, despite the fact that Lexi and the rest of her tormentors were there. Her friends were there, and so was her boyfriend.

Carter was Sabrina's boyfriend, and the star football player. The super popular football player falling for the band nerd may seem like something from an ABC after-school special, but for them, it wasn't. Sabrina and Carter had been dating for a year, despite the dubious start to their relation ship. During pregame at one of the football games, as Sabrina and the rest of the band was marching off the field, Carter was pushed by one of his friends. That joking push had disastrous consequences, however, when he fell into Sabrina, knocking her to the ground.

"_You asshole!" Sabrina had shrieked, "You broke my reed!"_

If you remember anything from this story, remember this. If you ever encounter someone who plays a woodwind instrument, don't break their reed. It is what makes the instrument work, and if you so much as chip it, you will be wished to the seventh circle of hell, to burn there for all eternity. *

Needless to say, Sabrina had hated Carter, and he had hated her, until one fateful day when their English teacher had gotten so fed up with their bickering that he cast them as Romeo and Juliet in the school play. Kissing on stage had warmed them up to each other, and a relationship was born, one that had been going a year strong.

Sabrina walked up the stairs, heading toward the small section of one of the hallways that was dubbed "The Band Hallway." It was where the choir and band rooms resided, along with the practice rooms, lockers for storing smaller instruments, and the closet where the larger instruments were stored. Most band kids hung out there, in the morning, after school, whenever they had time. Sabrina and her friends sat around the bend in the hallway, underneath trophy cases that were full to the brim, due to the school's exceptional music program.

"Sabrina!" a high pitched voice squealed. Sabrina braced her self for impact as a tiny body collided with hers. Sabrina looked down to see her friend Lily attached to her.

"Hey Sabribri," a familiar voice said.

She smiled and turned around, "Hi Carter!"

A collective sigh came from her friends. They had never liked Carter or Lexi, going at lengths to keep Sabrina away from them. Apparently it hadn't worked this morning.

Sabrina shot a look at her friends, momentarily ignoring lexi, who was clacking her way down the hall in her high heels. She was surprised to see that Lily had dyed her hair a rich brown, an abrupt change from her usual fire-enging red color. Despite the hair change, Lily still wore her contacts, something she had done from freshman year. One contact was purple and the other was red, accentuating the gothic style of her black skinny jeans, red checkered shirt, and combat boots lace up to her knees. She didn't exactly look like your typical flute player, but she was one, and first chair at that.

Tenshi looked like a fallen angel. She had been dying her thick hair bleach blonde since eighth grade, and had started using blue contacts in seventh. She had met Sabrina at band camp the summer before freshman year. They both played clarinet, and had been placed next to each other. The first thing Tenshi had said to Sabrina was also the first piece of advice she had given her.

"_Never get your lip pierced the day before band camp," she had said. _

Tenshi had since added two nose rings, a belly button piercing, and six ear piercings to her daily jewelry.

Tenshi's boyfriend Dray stood behind Tenshi, resting his head on hers, wrapping his arms protectively around her waist. He was the drum major, but during concert band he played trombone. He had red hair that fell into his eyes, and had gotten snake bites when Tenshi got her last nose piercing.

Lexi was wearing a miniskirt that slid up and down the tops of her thighs as she expertly walked down the hall in her heels. She had a lacy shirt on that hardly concealed anything from anyone who cared to look, which, judging by the stare of the guys she passed by, a lot of people cared to look.

Carter had his white, black, and yellow away game jersey on, which Sabrina thought he looked absolutely delicious in. His blonde hair fell into his brown eyes.

As Lexi neared, he reached out and wrapped her in his arms, a little too long for Sabrina's liking.

"Lexi, darling, what brings you here on this fine morning?" Tenshi said in a sweet voice, anger evident in her posture and eyes.

"None of your business, freaks. See you, Carter," Lexi said in a hard voice, flipping around and stalking back down the hallway. As she and her friends giggled, Carter turned to follow Lexi.

"Carter, where are you going?" Lexi asked.

"I'll be back!" he called over his shoulder.

Sabrina didn't know why, but she thought she felt a weight lift from her chest as she saw Carter walk away.

A few minutes later, the bell range, and the hall became crowded with people pushing toward their first classes.

Tenshi hugged Sabrina tightly. "Don't worry! I can share Dray with you! Right Dray?"

Dray didn't say anything from his position against the wall, he simply smiled.

* * *

* This is true. I play clarinet, I would know.

Beta's Note- Sorry this took me so long! My work ethic is crap, and I was working on my own Hetalia fanfiction! I won't pimp myself out here, but if you wanna check it out... I'd be totally okay with that!

As always, this was written by the lovely Luna Black, and edited by myself, so any mistakes are my fault, feel free to point them out! Please review, favorite and come back for more!


	4. Chapter 4

**Beta's Note- I'm so sorry this is late. It isn't Luna's fault, (she's actually written the story through Chapter 10) it's completely mine, I haven't had the notebook she's written in for the past couple of weeks, I kept forgetting to take it home. Please don't blame her. If you want to message her, her username is lunablack1234, but unless you're going to send her something nice, don't message her. If you have any issues, review, or message me.**

Three weeks had passed, and nine people had been chosen. Sabrina picked up the newspaper and read the list.

"Nick Walberg- 18, Missouri  
Alison Swain- 17, Texas  
Kurt Logsdon- 18, Mississippi  
Taylor Hon- 15, Hawaii  
Zane Hendrickson- 16, Florida  
Mimi Airet- 17, DC  
Brad Ellison- 18, New York  
Carly Kennedy- 16, Connecticut  
Tyler Gazel- 15, California"

She sighed with jealousy over the lucky people that got a chance to do something great. There was still a chance for her to make it, the last person had not been found yet, with only three days left before the month was over. People were getting restless, it was all anyone would talk about, with the exception of those against the countries, namely, Sabrina and Lexi's parents.

Sabrina and Lexi were getting home one day when they heard a scream from the kitchen. They looked at each other briefly, then ran for the door. Sabrina got there first and ripped the door open, Lexi tumbling in after her. They saw their mother holding a letter and their father shaking with barely suppressed rage. He started toward the girls but when he heard a fresh sob come from his wife, he put his arms around her and settled a glare at Sabrina.

"What's wrong?" Lexi asked, setting her bookbag by the door. She moved around the room until she sat by her mother at the table. Sabrina couldn't move, her father's glare pinned her in place, so she could barely even breathe.

Cathy tried to speak, but her sentences were broken by sobs. Alex translated for the girls. "Sabrina is the final candidate."

Sabrina's heart stuttered to a halt for a minute before picking up its regular beat again. Then, she made the worst mistake she could in the situation she was in. She smiled.

All hell broke loose. Her mother's despair turned to anger. Her father seemed as though he would explode with rage. Lexi began shrieking and searching for things she could throw at Sabrina without getting into trouble.

"Sabrina! Do you want to be one of those… monsters?" her mother's voice was hysterical, and quieted everyone else's. Sabrina froze, adrenaline pumping, trying to decide whether to fight or flee. She turned abruptly and tried to run upstairs, but her father grabbed her wrist.

"Answer your mother," he said in a voice that appeared to be calm, but the ever-tightening grip on Sabrina's wrist betrayed. Sabrina let out a small cry of pain, causing her father to drop her wrist. She rubbed her wrist with her other hand, trying to soothe the pain away. Anger bubbled up in the pit of her stomach. Who were they to tell her what she could and couldn't do? What she should be and what she should want?

"Yes, I want to be one of them! I want to go, and I want to be rid of all of you!" she screamed, her voice's echoing around the room as she ran to her room and locked the door.

Tears started falling down her face rapidly as she flew around the room packing her things. She slowly came to a stop, thoughts swirling like poison in her head. Maybe they just wanted what they thought was best for her. Maybe they were sorry. Maybe they didn't want her to leave. Leaving could be a mistake, she could be doing the worst thing ever. She plopped down on her bed, clutching her hair and convincing herself this was the right thing to do.

A loud banging shook her door, and her father's voice, shouting profanities, seemed to blow the already unstable door off its hinges. This startled Sabrina so much she fell off her bed, heart pounding fast. Throwing open her window, she snatched the two bags that held what she needed and grabbed hold of what she hoped was a stable branch of a tree that grew right by their house.

She moved carefully along the branch, stopping every few seconds to make sure she wasn't going to fall. Inching her way down the wide trunk, she breathed a sigh of relief when her toes reached the grassy ground.

She began to run when she heard the door to her room burst open with a splintering of wood.

She ran and ran until she found herself on Dray's doorstep. She knocked twice, trying to catch her breath. How long would it take her family to figure out where she was? What would happen when they did find her? Her train of thought derailed when someone opened the door.

"Sabrina, are you okay?" Dray asked, concern painted on his face. Sabrina couldn't talk, she was still winded, but she shook her head and gestured to her bags where they sat beside her feet.

When she had explained to Dray what had happened, his eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open slightly.

"Well, you can stay with me until you need to leave to go and become a country or whatever," Dray said.

"Are you sure?" Sabrina asked.

"It's fine love, Tenshi won't mind."

The next day at school was worse. She told her friends what happened, and they weren't as relaxed about it as Dray had been.

"I'm going to freaking kill them!" Tenshi shrieked.

Lily just held Sabrina, telling her puns she had learned.

"Wait, this means you'll have to leave soon, won't it?" Tenshi asked as if the thought had just occurred to her.

"Yeah," Sabrina murmured, nodding.

Lily abruptly burst into tears. "Th-this means I-I-I'll nev-ver see you ag-gain!" she wailed.

"I might be able to come back," Sabrina said thoughtfully. She had been so focused on leaving that returning someday to see her friends didn't pass through her mind. She felt a little guilty for having been so self-centered.

Dray was giving Sabrina a hug when Carter strolled up, Lexi clacking behind him.

"What are you doing here Carter?" Tenshi asked viciously.

Carter ignored her, walking up to Dray until they were face-to-face, locked in a staring contest. Carter was the first to look away.

"Sabrina, come over here," Carter said with an evil look in his eye.

Sabrina didn't move. "Did Lexi tell you what happened?"

Lexi grinned smugly.

"Yes, she did. Now you listen to me. You are going to go home, and forget that this ever happened. You never got that goddamned letter and you are not going away." Carter's voice rose as he talked, drawing a crowd.

Sabrina felt something inside her crack. "No! I'm not going to go home and forget this fucking thing ever happened! You can't fucking control me, so don't even try!"

"So that's it? You're choosing being a sick freak over me? Does this mean we're over? It's about goddamn time. You're such a prude, Lexi's a better lay than you'll ever be," Carter spat.

"You fucking slept with my sister?!" Carter was a lot of things, but Sabrina never thought he would be a cheater.

"More than once," Lexi jumped in.

Sabrina felt tears prick at her eyes, and was unable to stop them from sliding down as she realized that a relationship she had spent so much of her life on was over in less than two seconds.

"Well, Carter, you might want to check yourself. You don't know who else that girl has had up there," Lily snapped.

The bell rang before Lexi had time to respond, so she just scoffed and turned away, clanking back down the hall with Carter. Sabrina walked to her first hour in daze of confusion and sadness.

The rest of the day was boredom mingled with an awful feeling of being unloved. This feeling faded so quickly that Sabrina questioned whether she had truly loved Carter. She seemed to be getting over the breakup rather quickly.

Sabrina smiled to herself as she walked into her final class of the day. It was a study hall with all of her friends. They laughed and joked, disregarding the teacher when she tried to shush them.

When there was around ten minutes left until school ended, two men in black suits solemnly walked into the room ahead of a third man Sabrina knew very well.

He turned to Sabrina and gave her a wide smile. "I think you know why I'm here," Alfred F. Jones, better known as America, said.

Sabrina's life was about to get very messy.

* * *

Sabrina sat awkwardly between the two bodyguards as they drove. After Alfred had gotten her from school, they had gone to Dray's house and retrieved the stuff she had stashed there. She had had a tearful goodbye with her friends, promising to write and text and get on Facebook and to visit when she could.

She didn't feel sorry for not saying goodbye to her family. She decided to forget about them while she was away, and not talk to them until they supported her decision to go away, even if she didn't become a country.

"How did you find me?" Sabrina broke the silence.

"As a country I can know anything about my citizens, if I choose to. I can know their entire life story. For example, you were born on June 22, 1996, in Carpentersville, Illinois. You've lived there your whole life, and your full name is Sabrina Rose Anderson. When you were six you fell out of a tree and broke your left leg, which is why you limp slightly. You told your mom you fell, but really your sister pushed you."

"Can all countries do that?" Sabrina said, slightly stunned.

"Well, yes, but we usually don't, you know, personal privacy and all of that," Alfred waved a hand.

The car stopped, and two bulky men took Sabrina's bags. "They'll take your stuff to another car, depending on whether you choose to go or not," Alfred said cheerfully as he dragged her into a nondescript building.

There were nine others in the large meeting room Alfred pulled Sabrina into. She recognized them from the grainy black and white pictures she had seen in the newspaper. Alfred let go of his death-grip on her hand and pushed her into a chair next to where a quiet-looking girl with dark hair was sitting. The girl smiled nervously at Sabrina.

"All right guys, I'm gonna go check on something, be back in about five minutes!" Alfred called, walking out the door with his phone in hand.

Sabrina took the time to look around the room. Gray chairs lined gray walls and a large, gray table. It was a bland room, made for bland people to sit and watch slides go by on the projector at the front of the room.

Sabrina's thoughts were interrupted by a girl with blonde hair walking up to her. Said hair was swept up into a neat bun so her dark brown roots were thrown into sharp relief. She was wearing a neatly pressed pantsuit and high heels, along with a pair of small glasses perched on her nose that she looked at Sabrina with disdain over.

"So, you're the last person," she said, circling around her like a cat about to pounce on a mouse. Sabrina gulped.

The girl with black hair stood up and moved in front of the blonde haired girl. "Ali, I've had to deal with your shit all month. Sit down and stop judging everyone. Just because you were the second one picked doesn't mean you're better than anyone. Oh, and by the way, the wannabe secretary look isn't really working for you."

Ali stomped away, looking like a two-year-old. As she exited stage left, Sabrina's savoir introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Carly! Sorry about her, she's kind of a bitch."

Sabrina laughed, and seven of the other people in the room wandered over, Ali scoffed at them and looked at her nails appraisingly.

"Hi! I'm Tyler!" a blonde boy said as though he had just been given three too many espresso shots. Sabrina found his smile infectious.

"Hey," a tanned, dark haired boy said, grinning charmingly, "Be careful, or you might fall in love with me."

Carly punched him in the arm playfully. "Back off Zane," she said warningly, though a smile danced on the corners of her lips. He smirked at her before turning to go talk to Ali, who perked up a bit at the attention.

"Don't worry. He may be an ass, but he's generally a good guy," one of the other boys stuck out his hand. "I'm Kurt, and welcome to the madhouse."

She took his hand and he led her over to a couch she hadn't noticed before, the small group of kids following them. Zane dragged Ali over to where they were sitting and organized them into a small circle.

"Let's go around and say our names so newbie doesn't get confused, all right?" Kurt said.

"I'll start," a redheaded boy piped up. He was wearing a varsity jacket over a plain black t-shirt and blue jeans. "My name is Brad, nice to meet you."

"Kurt." Kurt said with a wave of his hand.

"Carly," Carly repeated.

"I'm Taylor," a girl with bright blonde hair said.

"My name is Tyler, but you already knew that. You can call me Ty!"

"I'm Nick," a boy with reddish-brown hair said softly. His glasses were slightly askew on his wide face.

Ali and another girl were whispering to each other, stopping only when they heard the awkward silence.

"I'm Mimi," Mimi giggled behind her hand, her face mostly obscured by her light brown hair.

"Ali," Ali said shortly, glaring daggers at Sabrina.

"It's nice to meet all of you," Sabrina said sweetly, pointedly ignoring Ali.

Alfred strolled back into the room. "Yeah, mmhmm, yeah, I love you too, bye." He snapped his phone shut and addressed the group. "So, this is the part where I give you the facts, and you make the decision! Let's get this party started!"

* * *

**Other Note!- I'm so so so so sorry! Gah. Anyway, please review, and follow and favorite and... yeah. I have full custody of the notebook now, so updates will most likely be more frequent.**


	5. Chapter 5

The room was as silent as a grave as Alfred walked over to the podium. Everyone twisted around in their seats to watch his leisurely progress. Sabrina sat in between Tyler and Carly with bated breath.

"All right," Alfred said, clapping his hands together. "Let's start." There was another silent pause as he looked desperately at the silent teenagers, as if pleading them to interrupt him.

"So, you all know why you're here, right?" Alfred asked. Everyone nodded, except for Ali, who rolled her eyes. "Okay, well, if you choose to become a country, you'll feel, different, I suppose. I'm not really sure, I've never been a human, but Arthur said it was like we're two different species of jellyfish. No one can tell the difference between us, except the real weirdos, but we're very, very different organisms. Us countries don't age, and we… yes, Carly?"

Carly had her hand in the air, and was waving it madly. Tyler leaned over and whispered in Sabrina's ear, "She looks like Hermione Granger." Sabrina suppressed a giggle and tried to listen to Herm- Carly.

"Who's Arthur?" she asked.

Alfred seemed to blush a little. "Oh, that's England, but ya know, since he's my former guardian and all, I can call him by his human name."

This seemed to confirm a suspicion of Carly's, and she nodded slowly, seeming to hide a smile.

"Anyway, when you're a country, you know everything that goes on within your borders. For example, there's…" Alfred seemed to think hard for a moment, "two thousand people brushing their teeth and about three hundred weddings are happening right now."

Carly raised her hand again. Alfred held up a finger, telling her to wait a moment. "This also means you know everything that is supposed to be top secret, which includes Area 51. That's what you were going to ask, right?"

Carly sheepishly lowered her hand. Alfred cleared his throat and the mood in the room suddenly tensed. "There are downfalls to becoming the personification of a country. Because you know everything that's going on, you feel the pain of your people, even if they're fighting far away. You feel the disasters, natural or otherwise. You get battle scars, even if you didn't directly fight." Alfred unbuttoned his shirt and stripped off his t-shirt. There was nothing sexual about the way he did it, he seemed almost resigned. Mimi let out a small scream and Sabrina gasped.

Scars, some small, some large, gleamed white-hot on his chest and back. Bandages concealed a portion of his upper chest, and as Alfred peeled them away, Sabrina could see why. A deep wound, a sickly red-green color ran from his collar bone to the center of his chest. Everyone stared in shock as Alfred ran a hand over it, wincing.

"This is from 9/11. It hasn't healed by any means, but it's on its way. It's been infected for the past eleven years, but it's getting better, really," he said, rewrapping the bandages around himself.

After Alfred had his shirt on again, he looked out at them, as if confused by the silence and horrified expressions. "Aw, c'mon guys. 'Snot that bad, really. You should see Arth- uh, I mean England." Seeing their unchanged expressions, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Kay, so I'll give you guys some time to think, about half an hour, it'll give me enough time to make a Mickey D's run, and if you want to, you can go. If you don't want to, hey, that's cool too." Alfred said, walking toward the door, already dialing a number on his phone. "Hey, Artie…"

When the door clicked shut, Sabrina sat back in her chair, her thoughts swirling around dizzily. Was it worth the risk? Was it worth the scars and the pain and the heartache and the sickness? This was all she had ever wanted, this was her chance at a good life. But if she had to go through experiencing the pain of people she'd never met, having those scars brought on by the invisible people of her land, would she still want it? She couldn't just change her mind after the transformation, she would never be the same person.

What about her family? What about her friends? All Sabrina wanted to do was call her mom and have her read her a bedtime story, like she had done when Sabrina was little. She wanted her friends around her, and for the briefest of moments, she wanted Carter to hug her, to tell her it was all right. But her family hated her, she had said her goodbyes to her friends, and Carter was a dick.

Sabrina's resolve hardened. It was what she had wanted for so long, what she had dreamt of as she fell asleep listening to the voices of her heroes. She would do it, she would take the chance. She pushed away the niggling doubt in the back of her mind, the one that would overtake her courage if she let it.

Sabrina looked around, hoping to get a glimpse of what the others were thinking. Most of them looked scared. Ali was chatting away on her phone, adjusting her perfectly hairsprayed hair in a nearby window. Tyler and Carly were playing cards. There was still about ten minutes left, so Sabrina went over to the small table where Tyler and Carly were playing.

"So…" Tyler started to speak then trailed off.

"Just deal her a hand," Carly snapped.

They played for a while before Tyler tried again. He looked at Carly, then at Sabrina. "You guys staying?"

"Yeah," Sabrina said, smiling slightly, "Yeah, I'm staying."

"Well, that's one decision down, nine to go," Alfred said from the doorway.

"We're totally staying," Carly said, "Me and Tyler, that is."

"I'm leaving," Nick said softly as he stood up and moved to where Alfred was standing. They shook hands once and Nick walked out the door, never looking back.

"Car's right outside, the red one!" Alfred called after him.

"I'm staying," Ali said, a smug grin painted on her face as she admired her nails.

"I'm not," Mimi said, "Sorry, I mean, you're really cool and all, I'm just not cut out for this."

Alfred nodded in understanding and opened his mouth, as if to say something, but was cut off by the slamming of the door.

"Zane and I are leaving," Kurt said imperiously. They stood up from the couch where they were sitting before kissing briefly and walking out of the room hand in hand. Kurt turned around to wiggle his fingers in goodbye to everyone before walking down the hallway.

"And you two?" Alfred asked Taylor and Brad.

"I'm leaving. Sorry, but I mean, I just can't, ya know?" Brad said. Alfred nodded and smiled.

"Bye-bye Brad," Carly said.

"See ya," he said before strolling out of the room, hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"Taylor?" Alfred asked. Taylor looked like she was going to wet herself. Alfred, by comparison, seemed to be bouncing in anticipation.

"I-I, uh, well, I'm-m…" she took a deep breath. "I'm staying."

Alfred grinned at the people left in the bland room. "And then there were five," he said in a mock-ominous voice before walking out of the room, indicating that the said five should follow him.

* * *

Beta's Note- As always, this is not my story, this is the lovely Luna Black's, but we both greatly appreciate the reviews and love! Feel free to comment on anything, from the grammar to the plotline, it's all up for grabs!

We adore you all!


	6. Chapter 6

Sabrina sighed and watched her breath cloud the cool glass of the window. They had been in the car for hours, heading to the airport. They would've gotten there after an hour, but Alfred had insisted on stopping at every single McDonald's on the way.

"Dude, aren't we gonna be late if you keep wasting time eating?" Tyler asked.

Alfred turned around in the passenger's seat and tried to say something around the giant wad of burger and soda in his mouth. It came out garbled and a piece of hamburger hit Ali in the eye.

"Ew! Say it, don't spray it!" she shrieked.

Alfred gulped hugely. "Sorry about that, it happens sometimes. And we'll be taking the private jet, so no worries about being late," he said.

Sabrina's eyes widened. A private jet? Alfred must be rich.

The pulled into a parking lot and Alfred stepped out, stretching. The five of them just sat in the car, staring blankly at him. "Well, come on! The plane's not gonna pick up the car and fly it there!" he giggled at his own joke for a minute before clearing his throat. They all squeezed out of the car, and breathed in the refreshing stench of exhaust. At least it was different from the stench of sweaty teenager, with the occasional fart.

Alfred clapped his hands together. "Okay! You have around ten, fifteen minutes. I'd use this time to call my parents, if I were you. But, do whatever you want!" with that, he hurriedly strode over to where they were out of earshot and pulled out his phone.

Sabrina didn't know if she wanted to call her parents or not. Her dad was bound to still be incredibly angry, and her sister was a bitch. Her mother might have calmed down some, but there was no way to know. She took out her cell phone and stared at it, praying to the cell-phone-gods to give her an answer to her problems.

Sabrina slowly and deliberately unlocked her phone and brought up the dialing screen, then, trying not to think about what she was doing, she dialed her mother's number and clicked the little green "send" button. Her breath caught as the phone rang and the person at the other end picked up.

"Sabrina?" her mom said.

"Mom."

"Sabrina!" There was a smashing sound and a stomping of feet. Sabrina's eyes went wide and she clutched the phone for dear life.

"Where are you?" her mother asked.

Sabrina swallowed hard. "I'm at the airport. We're boarding in about ten minutes." She was careful not to sound too excited. If she did it might shatter the fragile truce it seemed was between her and her mother.

"You're really leaving?" Cathy sounded heartbroken. Sabrina looked at the ceiling and breathed in through her nose, willing tears not to fall.

"Yeah Mom, I'm leaving," Sabrina whispered.

"O-okay. Is there anything else you needed to tell me?" Cathy asked.

"U-uh, well, even if I don't become a country, erm, I'mnotcominghome."

"What?"

Sabrina took a deep breath. "Even if I don't change into a country, I'm not going back home. I'm sorry and I love you, but I can't live with you guys anymore. I don't think you've ever truly acted like my family, and we need some space."

"Are you sure sweetie?"

"I'm sure, Mom."

"Okay."

Alfred walked back over to their little huddle. "Okay guys! Wrap it up! Time to go!"

"I have to go. Maybe we'll talk sometime, okay?" Sabrina said softly.

"I'd like that, honey. Talk to you later," her mom said

"Bye, Mom."

"Goodbye, BriBri," her mother choked out around a sob.

Sabrina let the tears come, let them choke her. Carly silently slipped an arm around her waist and led her to the airstrip, on which there was a small plane. The steps leading up to the door were slick, and being her clumsy self, Sabrina slipped on a small patch of ice.

"Whoa!" Alfred yelled, catching her by the arm and pulling her up. "Are you all right?" he asked. She had a feeling he wasn't just talking about her almost-fall.

She sniffled and pushed away the tears pooling in her eyes. "Yeah, I'm all right."

He cocked his head to the side. "You know you can talk to me?"

She gave him a watery smile and nodded. "I do now, Mr. Jones."

He waved her off. "Call me Al, or Alfred."

"Okay Mr. - uh, I mean, Alfred."

He grinned at her then turned to the group. "Okay! Follow me!"

They all stumbled through the regular airport security, although much quicker than Sabrina supposed most people got through it. After that, they were ushered off to a remote corner of the airport and onto a tiny plane.

Sabrina buckled her seatbelt, and began to feel panicky. She had never flown before, what if they crashed, what if they all died in a freak accident, what if the pilot passed out from some noxious gas Alfred passed…

"Hey," Carly said, walking up the aisle, "You nervous too?"

Sabrina nodded. "You could say that."

Carly grinned. "Wanna hold my hand?"

Sabrina's eyes widened.

Carly laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not trying to hit on you. You just look like you need some comfort. And besides, you're totally not my type, no offense."

"You like girls?" Sabrina asked. She was surprised. Normally, her gaydar was impeccable. Now, it seemed to be broken.

Carly shrugged. "Kind of. I'm pansexual. I mostly go for the really manly girls, but some girly guys really get me."

Alfred bounced up the steps into the plane and clapped his hands once. "Okay guys! We're ready to takeoff, so please sit down," he looked pointedly at Carly, who flushed and quickly took a seat, "and buckle up! It's gonna take about nine, ten hours to get to where we're going. If you're hungry, just ask Claude," he gestured to a tall, creepy looking butler-guy with glasses, "to get you what you need. There's menus, just ask Claude for those as well."

"Are you gonna be sitting back here with us?" Tyler asked.

Alfred grinned. "Nope! I'm gonna be flying this bad boy!"

Before anyone could say anything else, Alfred strolled into the cockpit and closed the door.

"Will anyone be needing anything before takeoff?" Claude asked in a smooth British accent. Sabrina and Carly shivered.

"That guy's a total creep," Carly whispered.

Sabrina nodded in agreement. Her throat closed as the plane slowly turned around and began speeding down the runway. She clenched Carly's hand in a death-grip as the wheels of the plane slowly began to defy gravity. They climbed through the air until Alfred came on over the intercom.

"Dudes! We're at cruising level, so if you have to pee, do it now!"

Sabrina let her head sink back into the seat. She was exhausted. The weight of the day crashed onto her eyelids and she slowly fell asleep.

* * *

**Beta's Note- So sorry this is late! I've had Show Week for my school play... and procrastination... and homework... and procrastination... So to make up for that I'm going to try to give you two chapters in one weekend! I'm not promising anything, I'm just saying that I'm going to try. **

**Review and Favorite!**


	7. Chapter 7

When Sabrina woke up, it was hot and sticky. She was no longer on the plane; she was in a soft bed in a room she had never seen before. She pushed away the flower-printed bedspread and slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes. Sunlight streamed past flowery curtains covering a floor-to-ceiling window. She was still wearing her jeans and t-shirt outfit from the day before. They felt sweaty. Desperate to get some relief from the heat, she stripped off her pants and hoped no one came in while she looked for something better.

There were two doors, side-by-side, across from the bed. One, she assumed, led out of the room, the other led to the closet.

"Eenie meenie, miney this one," Sabrina said to herself, opening the door on the right. Tyler was behind it, and was quite shirtless. Sabrina's face lit up and she slammed the door closed before Tyler could see her. Trying to will the adrenaline away, she opened the door on the left and was relieved to find all of her clothes neatly hung up. She grabbed a dark red tank top and a pair of capris and quickly dressed.

She looked around some more, noting the pale blue walls and the smooth wood floor. There was another door opposite the end of the bed. She opened it to find a small bathroom. She was too hungry to shower, so she grabbed a hair tie and pulled her thick hair into a ponytail. She cautiously walked out of the room, and promptly ran into Taylor, who was trying to dry her sopping wet hair with a towel.

"Sorry!" Sabrina said. Taylor just nodded to her. Sabrina turned to go to the kitchen and realized that she had no idea where that was. "Uh, do you know where the kitchen is?"

Taylor looked at her oddly before turning and walking down two flights of stairs that led to an open, spacious kitchen. Once Sabrina got there, Taylor turned around and headed back up the stairs. Sabrina stared after her before taking in the room. Alfred was mixing something in a bowl and talking to a man with messy blonde hair, bright green eyes, and abnormally large eyebrows. Sabrina suppressed the urge to squeal. England was occupying the same room as her. Out of all the countries, England was in her top five favorites, the other four being (in no specific order) Sweden, Finland, Canada, and Poland. She liked Sealand too, but he wasn't really a country.

Alfred turned to her and grinned. "Hey Sabrina! How are you? You were really out of it last night; I had to carry you to bed!"

England's large eyebrows shot up his forehead and Sabrina blushed. Alfred looked between the two of them. "What?"

Sabrina coughed and hurriedly changed the subject. "What are you making?"

"Pancakes! Mattie taught me how to make them! Take a seat; I'll make enough for everyone!"

Sabrina sat next to England, kind of. She left an empty chair between them, not wanting to invade the country's personal space. America turned around and frowned at that.

"You can sit next to Iggy, you know. He doesn't bite. Well, he does, but not unless you do this one thing with your-"

"OKAY! That's quite enough, Alfred," England said. Alfred winked at Sabrina and began pouring batter onto a sizzling skillet.

"Well, you missed a lot while you were asleep. I'll give you the grand tour later. Everyone else is still sleeping right now. We're in Kauai, Hawaii, and the room you woke up in is going to be your room for the year. We got here around nine last night, it's around ten now. Also with the room, you can redecorate however you want; you have an unlimited clothing budget. We're going to be going clothes shopping on Saturday. In your nightstand, there should be a laptop and a phone. You can come down here if you want to cook anything, but if you just need a snack, there'll be a snack bar on each floor. No getting drunk, if you do smoke, please do it outside, or with a fan and an open window. You pretty much have unlimited free time for the first month, after that different countries will come and give you lessons. Also, dinner time is mandatory for everyone."

England scoffed and rolled his eyes. "That's only because you want to use that ridiculous dining room of yours."

Alfred looked shocked. "Ridiculous! Artie, dude, it's fantastic. Do you know how long it took me to find American flag wallpaper and a Captain America Shield table?"

Sabrina giggled and accepted a plate of pancakes from Alfred.

"Anyway, we're going to introduce you to the public next Monday, hence the whole clothes shopping thing. Just a heads up, people are going to dig into your history once they learn your name. After around ten months, I'll take you to a World Meeting, and you'll get to meet all of the countries. We also have a trip to South Korea planned, although I don't know when that's going to be quite yet. And at the end of the year, there will be the World Ball. This is pretty much where you mingle with the countries some more and then everyone has to make a decision."

Just then, the door burst open and the room was filled with chatter. Carly was wearing sweatpants and a black tank top. Ali looked like she had woken up at five to apply her foundation. Tyler thankfully had a shirt on.

Alfred's eyes lit up. "Hey guys! Let's go to the hot tub!"

Tyler's jaw dropped. "Yeah! Where is it?!"

Alfred abandoned his half-empty plate of waffles and grabbed England by the hand. He ran out the back door to a shed that looked as if it was the size of Sabrina's old house. Alfred unlocked the door and walked inside, kicking his flip flops off. He turned back to the others. "Okay! Guys go left, girls go right! Swimsuits are in there!"

Sabrina, Carly, and Ali walked into the locker room, and were greeted by a giant rack of swimsuits, of every shape and size. Sabrina grabbed a dark purple bikini.

"These are so cute," Carly said, holding up a black bikini with red stripes.

Taylor nodded in agreement, taking off her shirt. everyone paused for a moment, looking at her, before shrugging and starting to strip themselves. They had all taken swimming, after all. Sabrina had seen many, many things in that class that she had never wanted to see. Now, three girls stripping in the same room as her didn't even phase her.

Ali was the first to finish putting on her baby blue bikini. Taylor had picked out a green swimsuit with grey polka dots. They walked out of the dressing room to find America, England, and Tyler were already relaxing in a hot tub the size of an Olympic swimming pool. They pushed through the cloud of steam, and Sabrina couldn't help but notice Carly trying to subtly check Tyler out. Sabrina nudged her in the ribs and suppressed the urge to giggle as Carly's face went up in flames.

"You okay?" Tyler asked.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, it's just the steam," Carly said, slipping into the hot water to sit in between Sabrina and Tyler. They struck up a conversation about Pokémon, and Sabrina smiled and waded over to where Alfred was, sitting next to England.

"Hey Sabrina, having fun?" Alfred said.

She nodded. "I just have a question."

He grinned. "Shoot."

"Do you like being a country?"

He tilted his head to the side as if the question hadn't occurred to him.

"Well, it's the only thing I know. I don't know if it's preferable compared to being human, all I know is that it does come with pain and heartache. Sometimes you want things you know you can't have. But I recently got something I've wanted for a very long time."

England blushed and looked away, pretending not to hear them.

Sabrina grinned. "And what's that?"

Alfred looped and arm around England. "The love of my existence!"

England blushed harder and threw Alfred's arm off of him. "Did you have to announce it to everyone?!"

Alfred smiled. "Yep!"

England glared at him.

"Oh, Artie, you know you love me," Alfred grinned.

England rolled his eyes.

"Aw, c'mon baby, don't be like that. Gimme a kiss." Alfred puckered his lips.

England crossed his arms. "No."

"Pleeaaassseeee?"

England sighed. "Fine. One kiss." He went into peck Alfred on the lips. Once their lips met, Alfred slipped his hands into England's hair, keeping them attached at the mouths.

Sabrina's eyes widened. She could almost feel a nosebleed coming on.

England wrestled free of America's grip. "Wanker!" he yelled before getting out of the hot tub and walking away.

"Okay, that got my lady parts a-stirrin, and I'm a lesbian," Ali said.

Alfred grinned and half-bowed. "Happy to be of service, Madame."

"Damn, you're a lesbian?" Tyler said, looking disappointed. Carly rolled her eyes and pushed his head under the steaming water.

"How long do you think it's gonna take them to get together?" Taylor whispered to Sabrina.

Sabrina looked at Tyler and Carly, who were now having a splash fight. "I give it two weeks."

"I give it a week."

"Wanna make a bet?"

"You're on."

* * *

**Beta's note- Haha! I did it! Two chapters in one day! Now you can't hate me! Success! I guess I'm lucky this chapter was relatively short, and very entertaining to edit. As always, this was written by the lovely lunablack1234, so if you want to drop her a (nice) PM, that'd be great! **

**Please review and favorite and come back for more chapters!  
**


	8. Chapter 8

The week passed with relative ease. Everyone got along, and best of all for Sabrina, it had been the first week of her life away from her parents. On Friday, France, Canada, and England visited their house. France and Canada had already picked their counterparts the month before, and England had finally picked his the day before he visited America.

Canada's counterpart was an ashen faced girl named Maddy. She looked afraid of everything, and as if she was a turtle who was content to stay in its shell all day. England had picked a small girl with thick blond hair and who seemed entirely too fond of the color pink for Sabrina's taste. France's other half was also a girl, who also had blond hair, except hers was curly.

Alfred started his Friday way to early, he woke up at 5, had three cups of coffee, and sat by the door for about 4 hours until the guests arrived. When a knock at the door finally came, Alfred jumped up and walked to it in a way that Sabrina supposed was meant to look casual, as if the man had not spent 4 hours staring at a door.

"Iggy!" Alfred jumped on top of his boyfriend. Canada and France walked in holding hands. There was muffled English swearing before England finally got America off of him. "Yes, yes, I'm excited to see you too. But we just saw each other yesterday."

America chose to ignore this, and instead pulled Canada into a hug. "Bro! How are you? I haven't seen you in forever!"

"I'm doing well. You look good," Canada murmured.

Next came in Maddy, Emily, and Hope. Hope and Emily seemed to be having a heated discussion, which Sabrina couldn't quite make out. Maddy trailed listlessly along behind them.

"So these are your, how do you say, tributes?" France said, his accent thick.

Alfred laughed. "No dude, these are my options. If you call them tributes, it sounds like the friggin Hunger Games!"

"What are their names?" Canada asked.

Alfred turned around. "We have Tyler, Carly, Taylor, Ali, and finally, Sabrina."

After that, they split off into two groups, humans and countries.

"Are you guys going to the World Meeting?" Emily asked.

"Yeah. Are you going to Korea?" Ali asked back.

"Yes and I am ridiculously excited! I'm currently bidding on Super Junior tickets online!" Hope squealed while Emily rolled her eyes. Ali looked like she wanted to hit her head on something sharp.

Sabrina's eyes widened in excitement. "You like Super Junior! Oh. My. God. Who's your favorite? What's your favorite song? Do you like any other K-pop groups?"

"I am in love with Super Junior! My favorite has to be Kyuhyun, and my favorite song is A-Cha. I also like Shinee and Big Bang. I kind of like f(x), but I'm just mostly completely in love with Amber!" Hope and Sabrina continued to giggle and squeal. Ali scootched far away from them.

"Why did I mention Korea?" she groaned.

Sabrina sighed. "Where have you been all my life?"

Emily answered for Hope. "Probably watching anime."

Hope pouted and stuck her tongue out at Emily. "Hey, you like anime too."

Sabrina thought she was going to die. "We're like triplets separated at birth!" she squealed before launching herself at Hope and Emily. They landed in a heap, laughing and talking.

* * *

Beta's Note- So sorry it took me so long! I've been horribly procrastinating... Anyway, review!

I saw the Hobbit Friday night, and it was AMAZING. I adored everything from the soundtrack to the acting. (I'm actually listening to the soundtrack right now...) If you like LOTR, you'll like the Hobbit (obviously) and even if you've never seen LOTR, I think you'll still like it. You just won't know who Frodo is at the beginning. Or maybe you will, I dunno.


	9. Chapter 9

The next day, they woke up at one in the morning and got on the plane to New York. Hope complained and drank four cups of coffee. Emily didn't say a word, just sipped the brew black, straight from the pot.

They drove about six miles to the small, private airport and boarded America's plane. The entire group collapsed into their seats and fell asleep. Eleven hours later, they had all woken up, and were watching the Avengers together on a mattress that Alfred had in the plane for some odd reason.

"Alfred, I swear to God if you do not stop saying all of Captain America's lines, I will personally throw you out the window." England said testily.

"We have begun to descend, so if you folks would put on your seatbelts, thank you," the captain's voice crackled out of the speakers. Once they touched down, the entire group was ushered into a black van and driven at top speed to a hotel. Outside said hotel, there was a group of people with flashing cameras.

"Damn paparazzi," Alfred muttered. Sabrina began to hyperventilate. She had never been good with crowds.

This fact was confirmed when she stepped out of the car, only to fall flat on her face. She was too humiliated to stand up.

"Are you okay?" Alfred knelt by her, looking concerned.

Sabrina nodded and stood, feeling better that Alfred was taking some of the attention away from herself. He wrapped an arm around her and ushered her into the building. Everyone rode the elevator to nearly the top of the building. Hope, Emily, and Sabrina had decided to share a room together. When they got in the room, Hope turned to Sabrina.

"You do know that the press is going to see those pictures and have a bitchfit, right?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"When you fell, and America went to help you. They're going to make stories up about you and him. They did with me."

"What did they do?"

"Well, Francis was helping me learn how to ballroom dance, and they snapped a couple pictures of it. It was a huge scandal, so Francis and Canada came out and told everyone that they were together," Hope sighed.

"Oh." Sabrina could just see the headlines now.

Hope flicked her hair out of her face. "Yep. Luckily, everything is all cleared up now."

Emily giggled. "You're gonna push Arthur and America out of the closet."

Sabrina groaned. "What on Earth did I get myself into?"

* * *

Beta's Note- Wow, these are really short chapters... Guess I should read ahead before I procrastinate... Sorry Luna...

So. Please review, and come back for chapter 10, I promise there's a lot more exciting things than in these past 2!


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning started at the (in Sabrina's opinion) insane hour of four in the morning. Hope and Emily had gotten to sleep in as Sabrina was forcibly removed from the hotel by Ali.

"Go get Carly," Ali snapped. Sabrina yawned and nodded, knocking on Carly's door before turning the handle and walking inside to see something scarring.

Tyler and Carly appeared to have smeared their bodies in super glue and stuck them together. Her fingers were so tightly wound in his hair that Sabrina was pretty sure they'd need a comb to get them out. His hands were travelling ever farther south, one of them even began to lift the hem of her shirt before Carly made a small noise of distress. This stopped the hands in their tracks and they settled on her hips. Their heads never disconnected, there seemed to be no need for air between the two of them. Sabrina slowly backed out of the room, her face in flames. She made sure the door shut quietly behind her.

"Where's Carly?" Taylor asked.

If it were possible, Sabrina's face turned redder. "She's, uh, busy."

"Making out? I couldn't find Tyler either."

Sabrina nodded furiously.

"I knew it! You owe me ten bucks!"

Sabrina sighed and covered her face with her hands.

Ten minutes later, they were all in the van, though Carly and Tyler's faces turned bright red every time the two of them made eye contact.

"Oh, grow up," Ali grumbled as they buckled up, but Sabrina ignored her, choosing to catch a quick nap before they got to the first shop. It was a chic little boutique that, judging from Carly's and Ali's reactions, was very exclusive.

Sabrina trailed after the group, yawning excessively.

"Oh, get over yourself. Try this on," Ali said rather good-naturedly, shoving a frilly pink shirt at Sabrina.

"That's not really my style," Sabrina said cautiously.

"Like I give a shit. Put it on, it'll look good on you."

Sabrina nodded and moved into the next aisle, where she shoved the shirt in a random pile of pants and speed-walked out the door. She didn't slow until she made it to a coffee shop on the corner of the street. The bell attached to the door jingled cheerfully.

"Welcome!" said the cute boy working the counter. He had messy black hair and bright green eyes that you could hardly see behind the askew glasses. He wore an apron with a little nametag that read "Hello, my name is Harry!"

Sabrina smiled at his enthusiasm. "Hello."

"What can I get for you today?" he asked.

She looked up and was instantly overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. "Er… well… Surprise me."

Harry grinned. "Yes ma'am!" he said before bustling about, mixing various things and dumping it all into a plastic cup and sticking a straw in it. "Here you go!"

Sabrina took a sip. "This is good! What's in it?"

Harry winked. "Just a little magic."

Sabrina giggled and took her drink to a booth. On the table, there was a tabloid, and on the tabloid, was her and America. The headline shrieked, "Country scandal with human?"

Sabrina suddenly felt sick. She had known this was going to happen, so why was she so surprised? She couldn't bear to read the article, she pushed the entire magazine off the table so it landed in front of a tall man with blond, slicked back hair, and silvery grey eyes. He picked it up and set it on another table.

"You obsessed with him too? Can't bear to see him with another woman?" he asked. He was also wearing an apron, but unlike Harry's, his didn't have a nametag.

Sabrina sighed. "That's not it. I just feel bad for the girl. She probably doesn't know what she's getting into."

The boy rolled his eyes. "And you do? Listen, if I know anything about this Alfred character, he probably wouldn't go for a human. Granted, I know next to nothing about him, but if I were a country, I would want to be with someone who would understand exactly what it was like to be me." Sabrina thought he looked in Harry's direction, but she couldn't be sure.

"But what if they are together? What if he chose her for the wrong reasons?"

"If you had lived for over 200 years, I think you'd know what you're doing. But that's just me." The boy wiped down a table.

"I'm the girl in the picture," Sabrina blurted.

The boy smirked. "I know. Good luck. We'll be rooting for you."

Sabrina nodded and walked back over to the shop.

"Sabrina! Where were you?" Alfred yelled.

Sabrina flinched. "Sorry, I was getting some coffee."

Alfred sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's fine, just tell me next time."

"Okay," Sabrina murmured.

Ali was standing near the dressing rooms with the frilly pink shirt Sabrina had discarded and a death glare.

"Put this on and give me some coffee," she growled. Sabrina thought it was best not to argue.

~Hours Later~

They emerged from the shop laden down with bags. Sabrina was surprised by the sheer variety of clothes in the store. She had ended up buying a red shirt that was very Oriental style, with a high neckline and an embroidered dragon lounging on the back of the shirt. She had gotten new black skinny jeans; hers were worn through at the knees. Ali had insisted she buy a pair of studded combat boots.

"It just completes the look," she said. Ali herself had bought purple pumps, leather pants, a frilly white shirt and a black sweater. Carly had chosen a green sweater dress, brown knee high boots, and a pocket watch necklace she had dubbed "the cutest thing ever."

"Do I have to wear a skirt?" Taylor groaned.

Ali glared at her. "Yes. Otherwise you just look like a slob." Taylor had purchased black high tops, a black tank top, and a flannel shirt. She had been looking at the pants when Ali forced her into getting dark purple leggings and a black plaid skirt.

They piled into the van and drove back to the hotel, where England was waiting for them in the lobby, holding a tabloid. Sabrina felt her heart plummet and her stomach jump up into her throat at the same time, making for a very odd feeling.

"Alfred?" England asked, holding out the magazine. Alfred took it and scanned the page. He sighed.

"Iggy, what do you want to do about this?" he asked.

England rolled his eyes. "Well, I would've thought the answer was obvious. We're going to have to come out."

Alfred grinned. "Awesome!" he exclaimed before kissing England full on the mouth. He sprinted up the stairs, only pausing to yell, "We're leaving in an hour!"

England's face was flushed. When he noticed everyone staring at him, blushed deeper. "Well, what are you waiting for? A bloody invitation?"

When Sabrina got back up to her room, Hope and Emily were sitting on the bed, gossiping.

"And I heard Germany and Italy are together!"

"Well, no shit, everyone knows tha- oh hey Sabrina!"

Sabrina smiled and plopped her bags down. "Can someone help me get ready?"

Hope and Emily exchanged a look before grinning evilly and descending on Sabrina like makeup-wielding werewolves.

An hour later, Sabrina's normally curly hair and been pressed flat so it flowed like silk. Eyeliner had been smudged around her eyes and her lips had been painted bright red.

Emily looked critical. "Is she ready?"

Hope studied Sabrina closely. "Almost. Just one more thing." She rummaged around inside her purse and pulled out a compact and a brush. The brush was incredibly soft against Sabrina's cheeks. "There! Just a little blush and she's perfect!"

The van they had taken to go shopping was too small, so they piled into a limousine and drove off to a building that Sabrina had never seen before. Lots of people stood outside of it with flashing cameras. Everyone groaned. They pulled up to the building and quickly walked toward the door.

"C'mon lover boy, let's go," Emily said, nudging England, who seemed to be in something of a daze.

The minute they walked into the conference room, people shouted questions.

"Are the allegations true?"

"Do you use the bathroom?"

"Do you like Doctor Who?"

They pushed through the crowd to the small stage at the front of the room. They each sat in an uncomfortable metal chair, while Alfred went up to the podium.

"Hey dudes! So, I'm here to show you my candidates today, they're gonna come up here, and say stuff about themselves, and you can ask them questions and stuff! Cool, so here's my first candidate, Tyler Gazel!"

Tyler meandered up to the podium, looking nervous. "Well, uh, my name is Tyler, I'm 15, I'm from California, my mom is a fashion designer, she works for Target, and uh, well, I like to read, and uh, take pictures, and play basketball." The end of his sentence trailed off so it sounded more like a question than a statement. "Any questions, I guess?"

A flurry of people began to shout questions. Tyler tried to answer every one the best he could.

After Tyler was Carly, then Ali, and then Taylor. Finally, it was Sabrina's turn.

"And, last of all, we have Sabrina Anderson!"

Sabrina stepped nervously up to the podium. "H-hello, my name is Sabrina, I'm sixteen, and I live in Illinois. I play, well, I guess I played, clarinet for my high school's band. I have one sister, and I like to write in my free time. Does anyone have any questions?"

The storm of yelling started up again. Sabrina couldn't focus on a single person, she was so overwhelmed.

"Ye- uh- no- I mean… EVERYONE SHUT UP!" she shrieked into the microphone. The room quieted instantly and Sabrina breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay. Raise your hand if you have a question." Sabrina thought she was lecturing a room full of preschoolers.

A lone journalist raised his hand.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Are the allegations that you are having an affair with Alfred Jones true?"

Alfred pushed her gently away from the podium before she could reply. "No, they're not. For multiple reasons. One, I'm gay, and two, I have a boyfriend. Artie?"

England stepped up. "Yes, it's true," he said, before planting a kiss on Alfred's lips.

Suffice to say, everyone flipped shit.

* * *

Beta's Note- Cliffhanger-esque ending is cliffhanger-esque! So, this is the last chapter for a couple of weeks, until I see Luna again. (We're on Christmas Break at the moment) This was a really long chapter, wasn't it.

So, quick story. I was just decorating cookies with my family, aka, "Family Bonding Time." My youngest brother laughed so hard that eggnog came out of his nose and got in all the frosting... My family is so weird. We're really sarcastic and introverted, so any time we're all forced to be together in one place, hilarity or awkwardness usually ensues. Generally both. But shhh, I wasn't supposed to tell you that.


	11. Chapter 11

The week following the press conference where Alfred and Arthur very publicly declared their love for each other was eventful, to say the least. The group had returned to Hawaii, saying goodbye to Hope, Emily, Maddy, Canada, and France. Arthur stayed with Alfred in the Hawaiian mansion, intending to lay low for a while and see how the general American and English populations would react. Said populations had been rather accepting, despite neither of them allowing the marriage of the two representatives based solely in the fact that they both seemed to be boys.

The craziness was finally starting to die down, and as Sabrina lay on her bed, reading the last manga novel of Fullmetal Alchemist, she felt at peace for the first time in a week.

"Sabrina! Brina! Bribri!" Alfred shrieked, running into her room, startling Sabrina, which caused her to promptly drop the book on her face.

Pushing the book to the side, Sabrina sat up, unconcerned. Alfred had at least three meltdowns a day. "What's wrong now?"

Alfred grabbed her arms and shook her violently. "How can you be calm at a time like this?!"

Sabrina sighed and marked her page. "Well, if I knew what was going on, maybe I wouldn't be as calm."

Alfred nodded vigorously and allowed Sabrina to pry his fingers from her arms. "Ya know how we're gonna got the world meeting soon? I was gonna send the list of people going to Sweden, and then, like, point two seconds before I hit the send button, Taylor came in and told me she was leaving!"

Sabrina squinted. "Did she tell you why?"

Alfred nodded again. "She said her mom was sick! Dude, this sucks so bad!"

Sabrina stood up. "I'll talk to her. You stay here and don't touch anything."

Alfred saluted her and sat delicately down on the bed.

"Taylor, can I come in?" Sabrina knocked on the girl's door.

"If you're gonna tell me to stay, then no, you can't." Taylor's voice sounded tired and agitated.

"I just wanna come in and talk. I don't know what the topics we'll cover."

Taylor's response was the rasp of the deadbolt sliding back and the door clicking open.

Taylor's room was exactly like how Sabrina's had been before she painted it. The only difference was the hundreds of pictures that sat on every single available space and hung all over the wall where Taylor could reach. The ocean seemed to be a recurring theme, as was a surfboard, a green one with silver decoration. There were no people in any of the pictures, except for one. It was also the only framed picture, and it rested on Taylor's nightstand. It was of a woman with short blond hair that created a curly halo around her grinning green eyes. She had a kind smile and skin that looked worn from overuse.

"She looks like you," Sabrina half-lied. The woman in the picture and Taylor had the same face shape and hair color, but other than that, they looked nothing alike.

"Mom? Nah, you don't have to lie. I know we don't look alike," Taylor said, trying to shove the clothes she had worn to the press conference into an already overstuffed suitcase. After trying and failing for several minutes, Taylor threw the clothes across the room and sat next to Sabrina on the bed with a huff. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Taylor spoke up again. "She's really sick you know, I'm not making it up to go home."

Sabrina nodded. "How is she sick?"

Taylor ran a hand through her hair. "They don't know; they've been trying to figure it out for the past week. According to my stepdad, she's been getting sicker and sicker; she has a tough time getting out of bed now and she throws up whatever she eats. I can't take being away from her for much longer."

"Do you think you're gonna regret it, leaving here?"

Taylor barked out a laugh. "Not likely. I never really made best friends with anyone like you did with Carly. And besides, I'm a surfer. I'm not cut out for politics or running a country or whatever." She looked at Sabrina with peace in her eyes. "Can you understand that?"

Sabrina opened her mouth, but a voice interrupted her. "Yes, I can understand that," Alfred said from the doorway. Taylor smiled widely at Alfred and held her arms out for a hug. Sabrina took that moment to quietly exit the room and go down to the kitchen to see if they had any strawberries. To her delight, they had three cartons of them.

England was also in the kitchen, methodically dipping a tea bag in a cup of steaming water. When he saw her, he smiled and lifted his cup. "Would you like any? It's Irish Breakfast."

Sabrina shook her head and bit into one of the strawberries. Carton in hand, she turned to go back up the stairs, but England grabbed one of her shoulders. Startled, she turned around, to see an almost pleading expression on Arthur's face. "Can I talk to you?" he asked.

She nodded and swallowed the bite of strawberry in her mouth. "What's up?" she asked.

Arthur nervously looked around the kitchen, as if the microwave or the melon baller was spying on them. "Can we go into the living room?"

Sabrina nodded again and took another bite. She followed Arthur into the living room and sat next to him on the couch.

"If this is about the whole tabloid scandal thing, I'm really sorry," Sabrina said.

Arthur waved a hand. "That's not it. I was never mad about that. I was going to talk to you about Alfred's choices in companion. He's not the Doctor, he can't have another one, so he has to get it right the first time, and I want it to be you."

Sabrina choked on the strawberry seed she had been trying to pick out of her teeth. "Me? Why me?"

Arthur sat back in the couch. "Since Taylor is leaving, that leaves the four of you. Carly and Tyler aren't going to get it, you don't really date humans when you're a country, and the affection they have now and would try to continue when one of them is a country would just be stressful and detrimental to both of them. So that leaves you and Ali. Now, because Alfred's a bloody idiot, he can't really see that Ali is not the best pick. You're not the perfect choice for a companion, but you're the best we have here, which means the best out of all options available to Alfred."

Footsteps creaked down the steps and England looked as if they had given him a heart attack. He gave Sabrina that she could clearly tell meant "Tell No One."

England looked at his empty hands. "It seems I've forgotten my tea in the kitchen," he said absentmindedly.

Alfred stalked into the living room and spotted the two on the couch. "What're you two up to?"

"Nothing really, I was just asking Sabrina if she knew why Taylor was leaving," England lied smoothly, standing up and tugging on Alfred's shirt collar.

Alfred nodded and stumbled out of room. Arthur shot Sabrina a look. "Poor boy, he really liked Taylor. I would get packing if I were you, we have a world meeting tomorrow. I'd pack three coats."

Sabrina looked out the window it was eighty degrees and sunny. "Why?"

"Well, the meeting is in Sweden."

* * *

**Beta's Note: Aand, we're back folks! Didn't I tell you guys to cut it out with the death threats to Luna? Not cool guys, not cool.  
**

**But yeah, I officially can post whatever I bloody feel like it anytime I bloody feel like it! Yay! I'll try to get the twelfth chapter up as soon as I can, just because I have internet doesn't necessarily mean I have unlimited free time, unfortunately. Band is getting super busy, we have a concert next week, and we're gearing up for Solo and Ensemble Contest (which you would know about if you read my Lord of the Flies fic, Lord of the Band Geeks (I also know it's not cool to advertise your stories on your friend's, but I don't care. Just kidding, yes I do. Love you Luna!)) But yeah. Super busy. **

**I'll try to get a chapter of Draco and Harry's Bedtime Stories up sometime this week, but I can make no promises. **

**Love you darlings! Please Review!**


	12. Chapter 12

In a week, they were landing in Sweden with Hope, Emily, France, Canada, and Maddy in tow.

"_Mon Dieu _it's cold!" Hope whined, rubbing her arms at they stepped off the plane.

"That's because we're in the Arctic Circle, _ma petite amie_," France said irritably.

"Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" Emily asked.

France shot a look at Alfred and Arthur, who both turned a light shade of pink. "If you two are going to do that on an_ aéroplane_, kindly do it when you are not sitting behind someone. The least you could do is go into the bathroom."

"Sorry dude," America said sheepishly, flicking Nantucket nervously.

France rolled his eyes and huffed, flipping his hair and grabbing his bags.

A sleek black car rolled around to the edge of the runway. A big man with a wide face stepped out of the driver's side door and opened the back door. As the group walked up to him, he spoke in a gravelly voice with a thick accent. "Your bags will be brought to you. Please leave them here."

They did as they were told and piled into the surprisingly large car. After around an hour of driving, they pulled up to what would be a small, cozy cabin, were it not three stories tall and roughly the size around of a football stadium. The shutters on the many windows were painted cheerful yellow and blue colors.

"Is that Sweden's house?" Sabrina asked, a feeling of excitement beginning to simmer in her stomach. She had always had a thing for Sweden, he was her unofficial country crush.

"Yep. We usually hold meetings in Stockholm while in Sweden, but, well, with China's condition, everyone thought it would be best to hold it here this time."

The mood was peaceful, if a bit somber, as they made their way up to the cabin. That mood was shattered as they drew nearer and they heard the yelling.

"Italy! What are you doing?" a voice Sabrina recognized as Germany's yelled.

"Brother! Marry me! Brother, why are you running? Don't hide behind Lithuania, he cannot stop me from marrying you!"

"You're crazy! Stop swinging that damn pot around!"

_Bam_ "It's a frying pan. Get it right."

Arthur chuckled. "Sounds like they started without us." They stepped up onto the porch and Alfred knocked heavily on the door.

Sweden swung the door open, blue eyes scanning the little group until they came to rest on Sabrina, where Sabrina thought they lingered a little longer.

Sweden's attention was ripped from Sabrina as Alfred spoke. "Hey dude! Are we the last people?"

"Yeah," he said in his low, quiet voice. He opened the door for them and stepped back as the group trotted into his house. The fighting and yelling instantly ceased so the large house was eerily quiet. Sweden led them into what looked like an overly large living room. The ceiling was vaulted to an extraordinary height and a plush couch encircled the entire perimeter of the room. A girl with long brown hair and a green dress was the only one in the room. She stood and smoothed her skirt.

"Hello, my name is-"

"Hey! Let us out! I wanna meet the humans too!" a loud voice yelled.

Sweden rolled his eyes and opened a closet door and out tumbled Prussia, Romano, Italy, and Denmark.

"Why'd you lock us in that closet, dammit?" Romano said angrily. Spain floated into the room and over to Romano, locking his arms around his waist.

Hungary put her hands on her hips. "Because we want the humans to think that we're normal, not a bunch of crazed-"

"Big brother! Where are you? How did you escape me?"

"-crazed lunatics," Hungary finished, sighing.

"Okay dudes! Me and Iggy and Francey-pants and Canada-dude gotta show you our people! So let's get everyone in here!" Alfred said loudly, clapping his hands.

Finland strode into the room, shushing everyone. "Guys, we have to be quiet, China needs his rest and we don't want to disturb him."

At the mention of China, everyone went quiet. Russia walked down the stairs and into the room silently, closely followed by Germany. The latter spoke to Sweden in a low voice. "I cleaned up the mess Italy made in your kitchen. Sorry about that."

Russia sat on the couch and clasped his hands together. "He's not getting better."

"Where is he?" France asked.

Russia nodded toward the stairs. "He's the only one besides you," Russia pointed at America, "that hasn't chosen anyone."

"Why is he so sick? I'm hardly sick at all, and I haven't picked!" America laughed obnoxiously.

Russia stood from the couch and glared at Alfred. "He was the first one to get sick! Of course he's going to be worse off you idiot," he growled.

The grin disappeared from America's face faster than Sabrina could say cheeseburger. "What did you just call me you Commy?"

The room went deathly silent. Russia took two steps toward America. This put Sabrina as the only barrier between the two angry countries.

She could hardly breathe as her eyes flicked between Russia and America. They were glowering at each other with hatred that Sabrina didn't know Alfred had.

Russia pulled back a clenched fist. Sabrina's eyes went wide and her breathing stopped altogether. As Russia let the fist fly, Sabrina clenched her eyes shut and waited for the impact of her body in between the two large countries', but it never came. Opening her eyes a bit, she saw Sweden, his back to her, holding back Russia's punch with one hand.

"Not in my house," he said.

Russia almost looked embarrassed as he lowered his fist and turned away.

Sweden turned around and bent over so his face was directly in front of Sabrina's. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Sabrina's brain short-fused, sending mixed signals to her mouth about what it was supposed to be doing. "I, uh, I-I-I, erm, I'm fine. Yeah, fine."

Sweden gave her an odd look before nodding and addressing the two countries again. "Apologize to her."

"I am sorry, human," Russia said softly before climbing the stairs again to be with China.

"Sorry Bri-Bri," Alfred said.

Sabrina nodded and muttered something, her brain still trying to control the wash of hormones that flooded her system when Sweden's face had gotten close to hers.

"Well, that was business as usual. Alfred, be a dear and put the testosterone away, we need to show them where they're staying," Arthur said, ushering the group to another flight of stairs across the room.

* * *

**Beta's Note: Yay! Another chapter! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and will be returning for more!  
**

**And Sufin fangirls, please do not murder myself or Luna. We like Sufin just as much as you do (In our friendgroupthing, she's Sweden, and I'm Finland) but for the purposes of this fanfiction, Sufin will not be a thing. **

**Please drop us a review!**


	13. Chapter 13

Night had fallen over the World Meeting and all was quiet. The sleeping quarters were arranged by country, so Sabrina wasn't able to stay in the same room as Hope and Emily, much to her disappointment.

America and company had been given two rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. Alfred was still boiling with rage over the argument with Russia, so Tyler sat silently in the girls' room until the sound of America breaking things from the adjacent room had quieted.

Hours passed until the room was dark and the only sound was Carly and Ali's heavy sleep breathing. Sabrina rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, rubbing her forehead. She couldn't seem to fall asleep, no matter how hard she tried. She stood, cringing at the sound of the floorboards squeaking under her feet. She grabbed her robe, put on her slippers, and tip-toed out of the room. Maybe going for a walk outside would calm her nerves and allow her to sleep.

As she passed an open door, she heard Russia speaking. Feeling like a complete creep, she snuck back so she would be out of the open doorway, but she could still hear what the occupants of the room were saying. Peering around the corner, she saw Russia sitting next to China's prone form, dabbing a wet cloth against his forehead.

"It's going to be okay Yao, just breathe."

Two girls were sitting in the corner, nervously running their hands through their long, loose hair. England and Emily were in another corner. Arthur was reading from an old heavy book and muttering to himself, while Emily had her head bowed and her hands clasped.

"Why can't you just pick? It would be so easy if you would just wake up and pick," Russia said sadly, lifting China's head and spreading his hair out so it made a dark halo against his pillow.

"He was going to," one of the girls said, "He was going to pick right after he got here, but then he collapsed."

Russia sighed and stood. "I'm going to call Hu Jintao and see if anything has changed in his land. Tell me if anything changes."

One of the girls nodded. Russia walked toward the door. Sabrina tried to silently scramble backward as he walked through the open door, but she fell, elbowing the floor with a loud thud. He looked over, surprised for the briefest moment before he saw who it was.

Sabrina pushed herself up off of the floor. "I'm sorry, I-"

"Follow me," he said, grabbing her arm and essentially dragging her along behind him down the stairs and out onto a screened in porch. He led her over to two chairs that faced out the window and pointed to one of them. "Sit."

Sabrina did as she was told, nervousness eating at her. What was he going to do?

"What were you doing outside of the door? Amerika sent you to spy on me, da?" Russia didn't look at her, only at the snowy yard.

"N-no, he didn't. I c-couldn't sleep, so I was just wand-dering around, and I heard you talking and- well, America doesn't know I left."

Ivan nodded sagely, still refusing to look at her.

They sat in silence for a while. Sabrina glanced over at Russia from time to time, wanting so badly to ask a question that had been on her mind since she had seen China lying there, but was too afraid to. Steeling her nerves, she spoke up. "What's the matter with China?"

Russia froze suddenly, then turned to look at her for the first time. "Hasn't America told you?"

Sabrina shook her head. "No, not really."

Ivan sighed. "Of course he wouldn't. China has the sickness that no one has a name for yet. It's the first illness ever recorded of a country having, apart from when we go through civil wars. But those are manageable, those we know about. We've never experienced something like this before, with everyone getting it. It seems to be similar to the flu that humans get, a cough, dizziness, a fever. But no medication works and it is not just our bodies that become ill, it is the whole country. The weather, the economy, anything could be affected, really. No one knows what would happen if a country were to die though, total chaos I suppose, anarchy." Russia seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"You seem to care a lot for him," Sabrina said softly.

"Yes. He was my first friend. Well, apart from the yak," he chuckled to himself.

"Russia! Yao woke up!" Emily yelled from the doorway. She was trying to tie her bathrobe closed and run a hand through her hair at the same time.

"Thank you Emily," Russia said, almost running from the room.

Emily blushed dark red and muttered something unintelligible as Russia walked away.

Sabrina smirked at her. "Does someone have a little crush?"

Emily blushed even darker. "Oh, yeah, like you're one to talk. Where's Sweden?"

Sabrina rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's go see China."

* * *

They ran up the stairs and saw all of the occupants of the house surrounding the second floor bedroom. Emily pushed her way through the crowd to the front, but Sabrina hung back, looking for America and feeling entirely out of place.

"They're in the room," a low voice said behind her. Sabrina turned quickly to see Sweden standing there. He grabbed her hand and pushed through the crowd hovering about. Emerging from the masses, Sabrina spotted America and the rest of her fellow humans leaning against the wall. When America saw her, his face broke into a wide smile of relief.

"Where have you been? I was so worried about you!" he said, grabbing her hand.

"She was with me," Russia said.

America's face turned stony and he looked up at Russia. "Yeah? And what was she doing with you?"

Russia smirked. "Answering questions that you should be answering."

America's glare intensified and he made fists out of his hands.

"Ivan, stop," came a weak voice from the bed. Russia turned around to see China glaring at the standoff.

He smiled. "Okay, Yao."

England cleared his voice. "I hate to break the moment, but Yao, you really need to pick, right now."

"Da. You must."

China glared at the both of them. "You think I don't know that? Come here, girls."

The two girls Sabrina had seen earlier stepped forward. One of the girls now had a braid in her hair that looped and swirled around her head before hanging down her back.

"Now, you both know that no matter what, I will love you both?"

The girl with the braid nodded. "Yes, we know. We'll always love you too, Yao."

China looked at her sadly. "I know Lin. I'm sorry, but, I'm picking Xue, not you."

The room was quiet for a moment before Lin nodded and smiled sadly. She gently kissed China on the forehead before turning and walking out, silently crying.

China sniffed and pinched the bridge of his nose before turning to the remaining girl. "Congratulations."

The girl nodded and wiped her eyes behind her glasses. "Thank you very much for this honor."

England cleared his throat. "We should change her tonight."

"Yes, as soon as possible."

England turned to glare at the crowd of bystanders. "That means you lot have to leave now. Yao, do you want anyone with you?"

China looked through the crowd and nodded. "Russia, Japan, and Korea."

The three nations stepped forward and everyone else slowly filed out. As they were walking back to the rooms, America said, "Sabrina, can I talk to you for a second?"

Sabrina nodded, pretending not to notice Carly's pitying look or Ali's smirk.

America led her into the boy's room and sat her down on one of the beds. "I was really scared when I couldn't find you. Please don't do anything like that again."

Sabrina nodded and patted Alfred's shoulder. "I won't do it again, I promise. "

Alfred seemed mollified. "What were you doing with Russia anyway?"

Sabrina was going to answer, but was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream.

"What was that?"

Alfred seemed to be in pain. "Xue."

Sabrina's eyes widened. "Why?"

"England said it's like being ripped open. You feel violated and… different. It's a big change, going from being human to a country."

The screaming didn't stop until dawn broke over the horizon.

* * *

**Beta's Note: Yay! New chapter! Also, if you haven't been able to guess, RoChu isn't going to be a pairing in this fic either... Sorry to any shippers...  
**

**Please Review and come back for the next chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

The next day dawned grey and snowy, perfect for staying indoors, curled up under blankets. Sabrina had managed to snatch a few hours of sleep before England called a meeting. Everyone moved quickly and quietly to the massive sitting room. China was still weak, he had to be helped down the stairs by Xue and Russia.

Xue looked stronger. Her skin seemed luminous, even in exhaustion, and she had abandoned her glasses. Underneath her skin, her muscles looked sleeker, more toned, and she positively sparkled with knowledge.

China looked as tired as Xue, but miles better than he had the night before. He staggered over to the couch and collapsed on a section of it. Russia helped him sit up and he cleared his throat, looking at the group that had assembled. "Xue and I wanted everyone to know that we are fine. There were no complications, and the official World Meeting will be held tomorrow, if I continue regaining strength at the rate that I have been, aru."

"Is that all? Dude, you could have just had everyone come to your room. We were all there last night," America scoffed.

Russia glared at the blond. "Do not talk to China like that, or I will tear you limb from limb, da?"

America turned cold and directed an icy look at Russia. "I don't believe I was talking to you, Commy."

A girl spoke up, one that Sabrina had only seen on the news. "Russia has not been communist since the 1990s. You can't even get history that you were a part of right, can you? It's not surprising, really, Americans do have that reputation..." It was Darya Azarov, Russia's companion. She was known as Danni to her friends (that's assuming she had any). Sabrina didn't know much about the pale girl, but she knew she didn't like her.

Russia smiled at Danni. "That is quite all right dear, I can defend my honor very well."

"Our honor, you mean."

"But of course."

Hope and Emily stood and sauntered over to Sabrina. "We're bored. Let's go read fanfiction." This effectively killed the tense mood, and as the three walked out, they heard some chatter beginning in the large room.

The rest of the day was spent in Hope's room, perusing a website whose users seemed to enjoy putting the countries together into romantic relationships.

"I mean really, France and England? They hate each other and England is a total prude, while France is on the complete other side of the spectrum," Hope said, scrolling down through the archive before clicking on a promising looking story.

"What about Canada? He seems rather prudish," Sabrina said, reading over Hope's shoulder.

Emily snorted. "Oh, you'd be surprised. France and Canada aren't as bad as America and England though."

Sabrina rolled her eyes. "America is like a constantly horny teenage boy and England just gets swept up into his escapades. Seduction would only freak England out, especially French seduction."

Emily nodded. "That is very true. A lot of people on here seem to like Germany and Italy together, which works out in their favor."

"I believe that is called 'canon,'" Hope said.

"Well aren't you knowledgeable? Been on here before?" Emily said.

"I'm French. What do you think?"

There was a lull in the conversation when suddenly, the door exploded. Through the wreckage came an American, yelling about something indistinct. He stopped abruptly when he saw Hope on her laptop.

"Dude! What are you doing? I'm like the king of the internet, let me see!"

Hope let him snatch the computer from her, smirking as he began to read the fanfiction. His face turned pale, then grey, then purple, then bright red.

"What? Did England really do that with France? Why have I never seen this nurse's outfit?!"

Sabrina giggled. "It's fanfiction. People put different countries they think would be good together into a relationship and write stories about it."

America looked aghast. "Real countries? What's next, pairing a chicken and a seagull?"

He meandered out of the room, muttering about chickens, seagulls, and nurses outfits.

The three girls exchanged a look. "I think we broke him," Emily said. They all nodded before turning back to their respective stories.

About an hour later, Sabrina decided to break the silence, "So Emily, you have a crush on Russia?"

Emily flushed dark red.

Hope looked somewhere between alarmed and amused. "Russia? Really?"

"Well, you know..."

"No, we don't, so do tell."

Emily shot a scathing look at Sabrina. "One day Ivan-"

"Oh, so you're on human name terms? This is getting pretty serious."

Emily seemed to decide that ignoring them would make them shut up. "He came over because he needed some spells from England. I just so happened to be have a marathon of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and we got to talking and then we watched them together. We're both into scary movies," she said with a blush.

"This is so fucking adorable," Hope said conversationally to Sabrina.

Emily rolled her eyes. "You're one to talk, you have a crush too!."

"Who?" Sabrina asked.

Hope flicked her hair back, her cheeks pink. "Turkey."

"Really?" Sabrina asked.

"Yeah, he's really attractive without his mask on."

"How would you know?"

"The last World Meeting was in Paris, and I know lots of places that you get absolute privacy," Hope said cheekily.

Emily and Sabrina exchanged a look. "She's French," they said simultaneously.

"But aren't we forgetting something? Sabrina, I seem to recall that you have a crush on a certain someone," Hope said.

"You both already know, so it doesn't matter. Let's watch Sherlock now, okay?" Sabrina said, reaching for the remote.

"Oh, no, you're not getting out of this," Emily said. Hope snatched the remote out of Sabrina's hand.

Sabrina heaved a world-weary sigh. "Fine. I have a crush on Sweden."

"Well, duh. Now put on Sherlock. I want to get depressed enough to the point where it's acceptable to eat massive amounts of chocolate," Emily said.

* * *

Beta's Note: This is sort of a filler chapter, Luna felt like the plot could do with some slowing down, but I hope it made you giggle nonetheless!


	15. Chapter 15

Two more days and China still felt too weak to attend the World Meeting, so they held off on it. More countries were arriving by the hour.

Hope, Emily, and Sabrina had taken this opportunity to power through three seasons of Doctor Who. At any point in time they could be found in Emily's room, eyes glazed, staring at the television as David Tennant defeated bad guys and looked damn good doing it.

During a slow episode, Hope asked Sabrina, "So, what do the other humans do all day? You know Carly, Tyler, and that other one."

Sabrina sat and thought for a moment. "Well, Carly and Tyler probably make out. I have no idea what Ali does; she probably has some friends or whatever."

Hope nodded before reaching for another handful of popcorn. Two episodes later, the door was thrown open and Alfred stuck his head in. "The last of the countries just got here! Come out and meet them!"

All three girls grunted and began the long and arduous process of actually standing up fully for the first time in two days (shuffling to the bathroom and kitchen didn't count).

Their joints snapped and popped as they followed America into the living room. On a stretch of couch sat Greece, Japan, and Turkey. Greece and Turkey seemed to be having a very heated argument over the top of Japan's head. The Asian country simply ignored them and smiled cheerfully at the girls.

"Konichiwa, I am Japan," he said softly.

"Japan is my boyfriend! You aren't allowed to touch him!" Greece said angrily.

Turkey scoffed, "Yeah? Just because he's your boyfriend doesn't mean he can't be my friend."

Turkey and Greece inched towards each other, chests puffed out like men who had something to prove. Turkey was raising his fists when a piercing whistle cut through the tension. Everyone turned to look at Hope, who blushed brightly.

"Uh, hi," she said. Greece looked pissed that he didn't at least get a hit in, but Turkey smirked at her in a way that made Hope blush even harder.

"Ah, arigato Hope-san," Japan said quietly.

"Yeah, thanks for stopping the morons," Egypt said condescendingly.

"Hey!" Turkey and Greece said in unison before glaring at each other again. It seemed they would start arguing again, if it weren't for Sweden and Russia walking into the room.

Russia looked around with a smile. "We would like to tell you that the meeting will be tomorrow. China is feeling recovered enough."

Tyler and Carly slipped in behind the two tall countries and headed over toward America. He smiled at them, but as they began talking, the smile slowly slipped from his face and was replaced with an expression of concern. They quickly walked out of the room and Alfred strode over to Sabrina.

"Brina? Ya might want to come with me to talk to them."

Sabrina gave Emily and Hope a nod before following Alfred out. As she was walking, she heard Sweden say, "Emily and Hope, would you mind showing the new guests to the empty rooms by China?"

Sabrina smiled a shit-eating grin. Hope was probably bright red at this point.

* * *

Alfred led Sabrina to the rooms where the former and Tyler were sleeping. Tyler and Carly were sitting on an unmade bed, surrounded by their bags.

"What's going on?" Sabrina asked.

Alfred opened his mouth, but Carly cut in. "Well, we wanted to…"

"Oh…" Sabrina said, the pieces clicking into place, "Why?"

"We can't be together if one of us becomes a country. It never works, and we don't want to end up like all of the other failed country-human relationships," Tyler explained. Sabrina thought Alfred looked a little sheepish.

Sabrina wanted to protest, but she knew that nothing she said would make any difference. Carly and Tyler had changed so much since they got together, and Sabrina never saw them anymore.

"I'd better get Ali," Alfred murmured before slipping out of the room.

Sabrina wrapped her arms around Carly. "I'm going to miss you," she said.

Carly pulled back and smiled sadly. "Yeah, I'll miss you too. And I'll tell you a secret," she pulled in closer, "I really think you're going to become the country."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Ali doesn't stand a chance. Give her hell."

Sabrina grinned widely. "Can do."

With another hug from Tyler, Sabrina walked out of the room. On the way back downstairs, she brushed past Ali and Alfred. Ali gave her a scathing glare. Sabrina rolled her eyes. Ali had been like that ever since they got to Sweden's house. Any chance that Sabrina thought that they had had at being friends was lost. Ali was, to put it simply, acting like a major bitch. Sabrina took this to mean that Ali wouldn't go down without a fight.

Sabrina sat on the porch and watched as the car rolled up and Carly and Tyler walked outside. With another hug to each of them, they got in the car and drove away.

Ali walked up to Sabrina once the car (and Alfred) were out of sight. "Carly and Tyler are gone now. It's on."

Sabrina sighed. "Does this have to be a fight?"

Ali smiled sweetly. "Yes. Because I know that neither you nor I will go down easily. So, let's cut the passive aggressive crap."

Sabrina smiled back. "If you say so."

* * *

Beta's Note: Oh my God, I'm so sorry I haven't updated this (or anything for that matter) in forever! I've had writer's block like you would not believe. I honestly could not (and still really can't) enthusiastically write about anything since around Christmas Break, so... I'm sorry. Really really really sorry.

But I'm going to try to write a lot more, and the first thing on my list is a new chapter of Lord of the Doohoos! Stick around, see what happens!


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